1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to eyeglass frames and more specifically to eyeglass frames for people with special needs such as those people with Down syndrome.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Down syndrome is a common medical syndrome of fairly wide occurrence. Down syndrome occurs in approximately 1 in 600-650 live births. It is usually caused by a genetic aberration that is hereditary. People with Down syndrome have some distinctive facial and physical characteristics. These include a posteriorly flattened skull, a flat nose which is further below the eyes than a person without Down syndrome, a depressed nasal bridge and low-set ears. There have heretofore been no eyeglass frames made specifically for people with Down syndrome according to research which has been done on this topic, and likewise no eyeglass frames for people with similar facial characteristics and for those with a depressed nasal bridge or low set noses including those individuals of African descent and Asian descent. About 87% of children with Down syndrome require glasses. Prior to the present invention, children and adults having Down syndrome have been fitted with ordinary eyeglass frames. Since the child or adult with Down syndrome has a flat nose with a depressed nasal bridge, and low-set ears, the eyeglass frames fit lower on the person's face than they would for a person without Down syndrome. The result is that a person with Down syndrome looks through the upper portion of the glasses, and since the eyes are closer together than for a person without Down syndrome (i.e., they have a narrower pupillary distance or “PD”), they are moved closer together, wherefore the person looks through the glasses in an off center manner, making the lenses in the eyeglass frames less effective than they should be. The problem is compounded because people with Down syndrome are generally unable to realize that the eyeglass frames are incorrectly worn.
There are numerous patents that have issue on various types of eyeglass frames which may appear to incorporate some of the features of the present invention, but none of them were prepared for children and adults with Down syndrome or other defects affecting the location of their eyes (more particularly, to the narrow distance (interpupillary distance) between the pupils of the eyes), the position and flatness of the nose, the wideness of the person's face between temples or temple distance compared to the eyes and the low-set ears, as compared to a normal person. Many of these patents are design patents, such as DES. 84,024 (Bosworth, 1931), DES. 153,955 (Lauber, 1949), DES. 327,716 (Conway, 1992), DES. 392,667 (Hyoui, 1998), DES. 403,008 (Hyoui, 1998), U.S. D473,258 (Hirschman, 2003), U.S. D552,153 (Miklitarian, 2007) and U.S. D563,454 (Militarian, 2008), and a utility patent such as U.S. Pat. No. 1,970,429 (Nerney, 1930), and a patent publication such as U.S. 2007/0040987 (Liang, 2007).
As noted above, despite the large number of babies born with Down syndrome, estimated to be approximately 1 in 600-650 live births, and approximately 480,000 people with Down syndrome living in Europe and North America. Although there are about 225,000 babies with Down syndrome born every year throughout the world, eyeglass frames have never been developed for people with Down syndrome and other defects having the facial characteristics of people with Down syndrome. There are also numerous people of African and Asian descent whose eyeglass frames sit low on their face, and their pupils are aligned with locations above the optical center of the lenses in eyeglass frames.
The optical center of an eyeglass lens should be aligned with the pupil of the eye looking through the lens. The optical center is one of the intersection points of the optical center of the lens surface. Each curved surface of a lens is made as a portion of a spherical surface. The center of the sphere is called a center of curvature of the surface; every point on the surface is equidistant to it, this distance being the radius of curvature. The line joining the two centers of curvature also passes through the optical center of the lens and is called the principal axis.
The present invention provides eyeglass frames for people, especially children, with Down syndrome which properly fit so the child or adult looks through the optical center of the respective lenses. This is accomplished by lowering the bridge so that it contacts the nose of the person with Down syndrome, extending and lowering the temple placement of the glasses, and shortening the temple or arm length, all of which cooperate to locate the lens on the child or adult wearing the eyeglass frames so that the pupil views through the optical center of the respective lenses mounted in the frame.